Everyone has thoughts on Goodreads and rightfully so. Being a reader can be hugely rewarding until it comes to the Goodreads Choice Awards.
While we've been covering the Goodreads Choice Awards recently, our focus is on the romance titles and the 10 finalists. Looking at the top 20, I honestly had a lot of hope for some of the more underrated books.
However as with most of these votes, all of the romances we thought would make the cut did. While it's not surprising, it's slightly disappointing. There were so many great romances published in 2024 who deserve so much more love.
Ultimately as mentioned in previous posts, this feels like a moot point as all of us know that Emily Henry is set to run away with it as she has in the past. Either way, let's break down the 10 finalists ahead of the results.
The 10 Goodreads romance picks are sadly unsurprising.
Starting with the non-surprises, we have Happy Place by Emily Henry which we all predict is going to be the winner for this year. Another one we saw coming was This Summer Will Be Different by Carley Fortune. Her books have made the cut since she started publishing so while I'm surprised it made it to the final round, I'm not surprised to see her on the list.
While The Cinnamon Bun Book Store wasn't on my list, this is one I've seen around a lot lately so it's clear it was a popular pick in 2024. Another one I haven't seen many talk about is Play Along by Liz Tomforde. Even so, this one is book 4 in a series so it makes sense why it would be there. While this author has been called out for some bad behavior, it hasn't seemed to stop people from picking up her books.
Oddly enough, a few books on my TBR ended up being finalists which is always great to see including King of Sloth by Ana Huang and Wild Love by Elsie Silver. Both of these authors are ones I've enjoyed in the past and have seen tremendous success in the past so it's great to see them here. While I haven't picked up anything from Brynne Weaver just yet, she's been having a huge year so seeing Leather & Lark here is pretty cool.
Last but not least, let's talk about the books I've read who made the cut. First is The Paradise Problem by Christina Lauren. This book was fun and a great vacation read. This writing duo has been delivering solid romances for years and honestly, it's great to see them in the final round. The same can be said for Abby Jimenez. While I haven't loved her past releases, Just for the Summer changed my mind.
Finally is Miss Ali Hazelwood who had two books in the top 20 but the book that made the final round is Bride. Between the two books nominated, it seemed like Just in Love was going to make it. I'm not mad about seeing Bride here. It was such a fun paranormal romance and one that I think surprised a lot of readers this year. While it's unlikely we'll see Ali get the dub this year, it's great to see one of her unlikely titles making it to the top 10. Thankfully we don't have much longer to wait as the winners will be announced on December 5th.
Be sure to come back to I Prefer Reading to find out our thoughts on the 2024 Goodreads Choice Award winners!